Season One’s penultimate episode was a hit-or-miss affair. Some stories worked, some fell a bit flat, and some felt like rehashes of earlier plots. We’ll start with the weakest and work our way up.
First, a message to the writers: so hey, the name the episode is funk? That’s funky. Funk is a good title, because there was lots of funky funk music for the funky funksters to funk to…. Please. For the love of wearing the same outfit twice in the same week, DO NOT KEEP REPEATING THE TITLE LIKE A MANTRA. Seriously, it was like Rand al’Thor with the dead chicks (okay, only four of you will get that, but you’ll really appreciate it). We don’t need it, we’re not stupid. You don’t need to hit some minimum usage per minute. And while we’re on the topic of underestimating viewers, why did the divorce paperwork that Will and Terri were filling out have to have the word “DIVORCE” in caps across the top of the page? There’s a lawyer there, the recently-split couple is filling out paperwork…wasn’t it obviously for their divorce? But I digress…
Utilizing an idea given to him by former glee club coach Sandy (the always hilarious and underused Steven Tobolosky), Schue makes “regrets” the lesson of the week. Your assignment, young misfit singers? Dig deep into the root of your soul to find that repressed, boiling anger, that despair, angst, and frustration, and express it the only way the kids of Glee know how. Soon-to-pop Quinn, full of regrets (“Thinking ‘Trust Me’ was a reliable contraceptive”) jumps at the opportunity to sing first, much to the chagrin of Mercedes.
Which brings me to my Glee storytelling faux pas of the week: the white guy with soul story. I say “guy” because the story is more often done with a male, but the result is the same:
White Guy: I have soul!
Black Guy: No, you can’t have soul. You’re white.
White Guy: What? No, really, I do! See, I’m sad! (White guy cries)
Black Guy: That’s not soul. That’s a wuss.
White Guy: Well, here, watch me (rap, sing, write, martyr myself)!
Black Guy: I stand corrected. I have learned much about the plight of others today.
White Guy: As have I. It was wrong of me to encroach upon thine bitterness.
Black Guy: Nay, it was I who have vexed you in my narrow-mindedness
I’m not entirely sure why they turned all Medieval near the end, but you get the point. Moreover, the whole Quinn-Mercedes tension has been examined already this season, which wouldn’t be bothersome, except that it had seemed resolved last time. Where the hell did this come from, all of a sudden? The only bright spot during this storyline (besides Quinn’s musical number, which I’ll get to later) was Dianna Agron’s performance during her resolution with Mercedes. When Glee first started, I wasn’t thrilled with the character of Quinn; she was so two dimensional, so generic: a beautiful, mean cheerleader. The arc that she’s been on this season, from getting pregnant to losing her spot on the Cheerios to losing Finn to losing her parents (or at least, getting kicked out of their house) has been well-executed, but it’s Agron’s performance of Quinn, especially in her moments of vulnerability, that have soared beyond the other dramatic performances this freshman season.
Schue’s main story this week revolved around his continuing war with Sue. After a largely Sue-free episode last week, seeing Jane Lynch back and on screen for a good portion of the show was nothing short of glorious; well-written and delivered by a singularly comedic voice like Lynch, Sue’s dialogue this week once again rose to a repeat-it-with-friends-the-next-day level. However, the idea that, to sabotage Sue, Schue would try to seduce her, only to dash her hopes later, seemed not only convoluted, but as the episode progressed, not at all in keeping with the characters as they’ve been established. While we’ve seen Will’s darker side on occasion, his seduction—especially when he knew it was working—seemed terribly malicious; coming from Will, of all people, who takes his role as teacher and mentor so seriously, his attempts to break Sue’s heart came off as a kind of horrific pedagogical malfeasance. And it isn’t just Will’s character that hurt the storyline so. While Sue has been built up as complete in her disinterest in Will’s more social conventions (like romance), we’ve seen the chinks in her armor: her care of her sister with Down Syndrome and her romance with Rod Remington instantly spring to mind. But I don’t think I’m alone in my strange love of Sue; when she’s beaten by the glee club it’s one thing, and we cheer against her; to see her actually attacked emotionally by Will just didn’t line up. Plus, did anyone else feel that Sue wouldn’t have fallen for it in the first place? While I could understand her reasoning that she’s so alone she’d even take up with Will—who she hates—they didn’t go very far to make it believable. Yes, her admitting how alone she is is one thing, but the writers have proven before that they can push a storyline without making the characters make blatant expository admissions (again, Sue taking on a girl with Down Syndrome for the Cheerios is a perfect example). I know that this is the final episode before the big finale and Regionals, but too much of the episode just felt contrived. Not to mention that the reason for Schue to take such drastic measures is never really satisfactorily revealed. Was it because of the TP incident in New Directions’ rehearsal room? If so, it was a rather weak point on which to build such a malevolent scheme.
The other main story this week involved the throwing down of the gauntlet, as it were, between Vocal Adrenaline and New Directions. McKinley High’s finest walked in on a performance by Vocal Adrenaline to start the episode—a truncated “Another One Bites the Dust” with Rachel’s erstwhile beau, Jesse St. James, singing lead—right in their own auditorium. I’ve forgiven the rush of the Jesse-Rachel story because I want to believe that it was more a vehicle for Rachel to find out who her mother is (Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran, whose portrayer, Idina Menzel, bears a striking resemblance to Lea Michele). There wasn’t much development with Rachel this week—most of her few interactions with Jesse included “meaningful” stares and campy dialogue (Yolk-covered Rachel defiantly says, “Do it. Break it like you broke my heart.” “I loved you,” says Jesse, before smashing a raw egg on her head). Which left me wondering: why doesn’t he love her anymore? What the hell happened? Also, how did he actually love her in the first place? They dated for, what, three weeks? (No, I don’t mean in TV time, I mean in the show’s timeline…it didn’t seem like they dated for that long)
To get back for the TPing mentioned above, Finn and Puck slashed the tires of Vocal Adrenalines’ Range Rovers. (On a side note, every kid on that team got a Range Rover for being able to sing in key and follow a choreographed dance number, which I found appalling, until I realized that my old high school’s booster club treats our football team like war heroes) Shelby meets with Principal Figgins, Will, Sue, and the boys to demand that they pay for the damage in lieu of her pressing charges. To do so, Finn and Puck get a job at Sheets-N-Things, working for the former Mrs. Terri Schuester. This leads to a few cringe-inducing exchanges between Terri and Finn. At first, Terri sees Will in Finn (which harks back to Terri creepily telling Will, “You’re still that sixteen year old boy to me”), and proceeds to begin a passively flirtatious relationship with him. While it’s definitely creepy, this is the kind of over-the-top humor that’s made Glee such a riotous show in the past—faked pregnancies, making a guy believe you can get pregnant just by being in the same hot tub, etc.—and, improper though it is, I think they can get some mileage out of this story in the second season.
The aftermath of the already-mentioned egging of Rachel brings me to another strong point on the show: the friendship between the members of the glee club. At this point, Finn, Puck, Mike, Matt, and Kurt (?!?) were ready to pound the guys of Vocal Adrenaline, not so much out of friendship, but comradeship. (By the way, my questioning of Kurt's sudden machismo is not a slight on the gay character he portrays; it just seemed really out of character, as Kurt has more than once avowed his aversion to physical violence) They have already made a point this season of building up the tension, the fights, and the uneasy, unsteady friendships between many members of glee club. In the long run, I hope that this becomes one of the cruxes of the show, the idea of how much these kids need each other. Though if it turns out that the glee club was some strange purgatory that their collective transcendent consciousnesses created so that they could come together, then I’m out.
So that’s pretty much it, story-wise. We’re left ready for Regionals. It all comes down to this. Let’s get ready to rumble. In seriousness, I think that the mid-season finale (“Sectionals”) was one of the best episodes of television in the past few years. As a fan of fantasy literature, I think non-fantasy fans would be surprised to find out how many fantasy tropes and underpinnings the writers of Glee used to build towards the climax, some serious Joseph Campbell-type stuff—the loss of the mentor (Will’s banishment from the competition), the mentor’s final lesson (convincing Finn to go to Sectionals), the hero’s return with elixir (Finn saves the day, not just by showing up, but by having a new song for them to sing)—and my hopes for the season finale are incredibly high. And though I won’t ruin it on you, let’s just say that the song choices for New Directions will, much like the storytelling, adhere to the most basic (and I mean that in a good way) fantasy tropes, a kind of perfect symmetry in the universe.
This week’s songs were pretty much middle-of-the-road. The Vocal Adrenaline performance of “Another One Bites the Dust”, albeit short, sounded good, and Jonathan Groff especially shined in the lead.
Puck and Finn singing Beck’s “Loser” in Sheets-N-Things was fantastic, albeit random, but one I’d certainly put on my iPod.
For Quinn’s funk selection, she sang “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” Much like her dramatic performances, I feel that Dianna Agron’s voice is drastically underused; great performance, but the backup dancers were definitely strange. In the show, were they supposed to be actual pregnant teens, or teens in pregnancy bellies?
Puck, Finn, and Mercedes performed Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations,” which was as goofy as you would imagine it would be. Though I must admit that Cory Monteith and Mark Salling both rap much better than Matt Morrison. And, of course, there was Mercedes. If Amber Riley were on American Idol, Randy would say “When you can sing, you can sing, it doesn’t matter what, you can sing the phone book!” And he’d be right.
Finally, the kids of New Directions performed “Give Up the Funk,” probably the strongest performance of the night. As they proved all the way back in the pilot, with a rendition of “Don’t Stop Believing” that I still listen to at least twice a week, these singers’ voices were meant to be heard together.
In this week’s Sue’s Corner, the five best Sue Sylvester lines of the episode. Enjoy, and see you next week!
- ”You know what it has to look like? Elvis’s gold-record room at Graceland. Except I’ll be wanting far fewer morbidly obese white women waddling around and crying.” (When explaining to the drafting class how to redecorate the glee club choir room)
- ”You know, for me, trophies are like herpes. You can try to get rid of them, but they just keep coming. You know why? Sue Sylvester has hourly flare-ups of burning, itchy, highly-contagious talent.”
- (When Schue says that the tire-slashing was a harmless prank) “That’s what they said about a young man in Chicago, in 1871, who thought he would play a harmless prank on the dairy cow of one Mrs. O’Leary. He successfully ignited its flatulence and a city burned, William. That young terrorist went on to become the first gay president of the United States: Abraham Lincoln.
- ”Well, the week before nationals every year, I have a placenta mask right after a rigorous session of microdermabrasion.” (After Will tells Sue she looks radiant)
- ”I’ll admit that in the past I’ve fantasized about waking up with Will’s head on the pillow next to me, except now I picture it attached to the rest of his body.” (Entry in Sue’s diary about her burgeoning attraction to Will).
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